History
In 1927 McGhee Tyson airport was opened in honor of Charles McGhee Tyson. Originally the airport was on a 60 acre stretch of land in West Knoxville. In 1935 the city purchased 351 acres of land in Blount County for development of the current airport. The land was being purchased for the development of a facility that would be used for air carrier traffic. The airport has constantly making improvements to it since the first terminal was built. In 1941 the city constructed a new air traffic control tower on the airport. Two years later the airport continued the development of with two 5,000-foot (1,500 m) runways.
In 1951 the United States Air Force constructed several facilities on the field along with a 7,500-foot (2,300 m) runway. The Federal aviation administration (FAA) added an Instrument Landing System to runways 4L and 22R in 1959. Then in 1961 the runway was lengthened again to its current length of 9,000 feet (2,700 m). The Tennessee Air National Guard financed the project. In 1968 McGhee Tyson constructed a new air cargo facility. Almost a decade after the new air cargo facility was built one of the first major construction projects was completed with a new passenger terminal facility in 1974. Four years later the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority (MKAA) was established, and the airport authority had the two parallel runways redesigned to become 5R and 23 L and 5L and 23 R in 1985.
In 1990 runway 5R and 23L was reconstructed to its current a length of 9,000 feet. The airport authority constructed a new air cargo facility in 1992. The Air Cargo Complex provided a 21-acre facility for Federal Express, UPS and Airborne Express the carriers were provided with building designs to meet their needs. 90 percent of the total air cargo operations at the Airport are operated between UPS and Federal Express. The total cost of the project was an estimated at $9.3 million. The new air cargo facility is located on the northern side of the air facility.
In 2000, construction was completed on the last major construction project with improvements to the passenger terminal. The cost of the project was $70 million dollars. The improvements, designed by HNTB, included two new concourses, 12 new gates, ticket counters, and a Ruby Tuesday restaurant. Currently, 11 gates are in use, with gate 6 being the only one not in service. In 2002, an aircraft maintenance facility was built for Northwest Airlines, serving as their primary CRJ MRO facility. ExpressJet Airlines has also built a heavy maintenance hangar near the air cargo facilities for its fleet. In June 2009, a new food court was completed, featuring Starbucks, Quiznos, Cinnabon, and Zia locations.
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“Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)